Wednesday, September 30, 2009

NCAA '09 Football: Week 5







Entering the college football season’s fifth week, we’re still looking for the real killer matchups. This week starts to look better with some classics worth noting. We have seven games in our sights that should prove lively entertainment.

Michigan (#22) -2 at Michigan State
Michigan (#22) plays in-state rival Michigan State in Lansing installed as only a two point favorite. Michigan can’t be caught napping as this game will go a long way to prove that Michigan is truly a winning program after the painful transition it endured last year.

Virginia at North Carolina -13 ½
North Carolina was dropped from the national rankings after a miserable performance in the rain at Georgia Tech last week. The Tarheels had almost nothing going for them in what could have been a real plus in their quest for being a big time program again. They need to win convincingly for the home crowd versus Virginia, no room for squeakers this time.

LSU (#4) -3 at Georgia (#18)
LSU smells blood in the water with Tim Tebow possibly rattled at Florida and is a legitimate contender for the BCS crown. To get there, they must take care of business against teams like Georgia who are very capable of pulling the upset.

Air Force at Navy -3
Far from gathering the excitement of the annual Army-Navy matchup in December, football fans around the country must look admiringly at both teams in this matchup because regardless of matchup, both teams are winners. Navy should capitalize on playing at home and have looked especially skillful in recent games. Hat’s off to both sidelines. When they graduate, they’ll be playing for higher stakes than grads from any other university.

Florida State -5 at Boston College
2009 was supposed to be something of a comeback season for Bobby Bowden’s boys at Florida State but they’ve looked pretty lame so far. Many would hope Bowden could find one last shot at glory as what Joe Paterno is enjoying with the Penn State program. We’re going with the Seminoles but this could be an upset for Boston College being able to prevail at home.

USC (#7) -5 at California (#24)
The USC locker room is a somber chamber after the freakish injury Stafon Johnson suffered while weight training. His muscular build and optimum conditioning perhaps saved his life as the barbell slipped landing right on his throat. USC should pull their game together and win this weekend, but California is proving a tough team to beat so far in 2009.

Oklahoma (#8) at Miami (#17)
The ACC was written off as a second class conference for 2009 with no real threat for the BCS Championship against what appear to be stronger SEC and Big 12 schools. However, as the season has progressed, Frank Beamer’s boys at Virginia Tech look like a team that can compete with anyone anywhere. The up and coming team starting to resemble teams from their glorious past is the University of Miami. Saturday night’s contest is Miami’s last real test at what could be just a one loss season. Oklahoma is a legit contender for top honors in January, but they will find their trip to sunny south Florida is no vacation Saturday. This is a red hot game for them to help position them for their biggest game of the season in two weeks against Texas. Still, they’ve already lost to a team that is arguably not as strong as Miami opening up with a loss to Brigham Young on their home turf. Since that loss, Oklahoma’s defense has been unyielding but they face a most unpredictable and talented young quarterback from Miami, 6’4” Jacory Harris. Another issue for Oklahoma is how ready their QB, Sam Bradford is.





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